How to cut porcelain tile without a tile cutter. Waterjet cutting and drilling of porcelain stoneware

What to cut and how to avoid chipping on porcelain tiles at home

The need to cut porcelain tiles occurs in situations where you want to trim the tile to the right size when installing floors, walls, stairs and various surfaces indoors. This material is very hard, so it is not easy to work with it. Different tools and devices are used for this.

Ceramic granite tiles appeared on the market of construction materials relatively recently, but it has already gained great popularity due to its high performance qualities, combining the properties of natural stone and ceramics. This tile material is obtained by dry pressing of a homogeneous mixture of quartz sand, illite clay, kaolin, feldspar and mineral paints. Ceramic granite tiles get their final appearance after firing in special furnaces at high temperature (1200 1300°C).

The material has the following characteristics:

• high hardness. 7-8 units. on the Mohs scale (corresponds to corundum);
• strength;
• wear resistance and durability;
• It is hygienic and easy to care for;
• antistatic;
• low water absorption;
• resistance to aggressive environments;
• environmental friendliness;
• frost resistance;
• flame retardant.

Due to the almost complete absence of pores, the extremely high strength and other features, the material is hard to work with. It is recommended to use a specialized tool for cutting porcelain tiles, which allows you to get an even quality cut.

Safety rules for cutting

Safety rules when working with cutting tools are as simple as possible, and their observance is obligatory, because your health and even life depend on it. When using non-electric tools, a basic set of protective equipment is gloves and goggles. Gloves will help you avoid cuts by sharp edges of the material and glasses will prevent the splinters and dust from getting into your eyes.

When working with an electric tool, angle grinder or tile cutter, special attention is paid to safety:

• Never change or clean the cutting wheel when the machine or angle grinder is plugged in. The equipment should be completely disconnected from the electrical supply.
• Do not plunge the cutting wheel into the porcelain stoneware by more than one-third when cutting with an angle grinder. When working with the tile cutter, the wheel must not be lowered by more than half.
• The angle grinder must have a protective cover and the cut of the tile is made in the direction from yourself.
• Wear protective clothing that is thicker than usual and leave no exposed body areas. When the cutting wheel becomes hot, the sputtering particles may bounce off and cause burns on the body.
• It is important to use thick cloth gloves. Practice shows that knitted gloves are not suitable and can cause injury. Often, if the tool is mishandled, the disc or counter nut will catch the threads of the glove and can twist them.
• There should be no dangling straps or clasps on clothing, and if you have long hair, they should be hidden in a headdress.

Since power tools create noise and often a lot of dust, then goggles, headphones and a respirator are mandatory protective equipment.

Cutting technology with a handheld tile cutter

Since the most common way to process porcelain granite at home is a manual tile cutter, it is worth considering in detail how to cut porcelain tiles with this tool.

Before making a straight cut, mark the cutting lines on the porcelain tile with a marker. Next, you need to put the element on the base of the device, while aligning the level of the cutting wheel and the line for the trimmer of the cut. If it is planned to make several cuts with the same size, the limiting frame should be fixed with a bolt in one position. The tile must be held with one hand, while the other hand holds the handle of the tile cutter.

Then it is necessary to raise the handle so that the wheel touches the surface of the upper part of the element, and then pull the handle towards yourself and cut porcelain tile. It is necessary to perform no more than one pass with the wheel, and press with a slight pressure, which is enough to mark the cutting line. As a rule, if the whole series of cuts is made along this line, the result is of low quality.

To divide the porcelain tile along the marked cut, special “wings” should be installed at the base of the handle at the level of the lower part. It is desirable to glue the edges of the “wings” with special tape, which will save the tile from unnecessary imprints and traces. Some experts fix the element in a suitable position, then press the handle with their fingers and lightly strike it with the palm of their hand.

If the measured part has not split off, it should be beaten even harder

It happens that the tile does not break even after a few strokes, but how to cut porcelain tiles with a tile cutter does not matter, because this element is no longer suitable for use as a decorative coating. It remains to start working with the new tile

If the cut edge is visible when the tile is fixed in place, you can smooth out the uneven corners with sandpaper or a sanding tool there. Masters usually have several types of grinding stone treatment of different tile surfaces. In cases where one cut edge is covered by another tile, for example, on the outside corner, it is not necessary to grind the problem side.

What to do when you need to make a hole in the glass?

The fact that glass or mirror can be cut with a glass cutter is probably known to many people. But often during finishing work in the bathroom it is necessary to drill a glass or mirror. If there is no possibility to take the mirror to the “glass cutter”, then you can drill a hole yourself in the following sequence:

On the back and front side of the mirror glue a paper adhesive tape;

From the children’s plasticine make and glue to the front surface of the mirror a ring with a height of 2 cm;

Pour turpentine into the plasticine ring to the middle;

Drilling in turpentine is performed with pobedite drills up to 6 mm in diameter or with cast round copper or brass core. You can also use an old flat tip from a soldering iron.

Shaped and angular cutting

Note: If we use a peorized polymer corner, the productivity of finishing will increase markedly. You can hide the porcelain tile with a defective edge under its strip.

Cutting methods

Angle grinder and electric tile cutter

In the first method we will cut porcelain stoneware with an angle grinder. Its full name is an angle grinder. It can not be attributed to specialized tools in view of its versatility of use, especially in domestic matters. For cutting porcelain tile in domestic conditions, it is best to choose a small power angle grinder, so that the cut is more accurate.

Choose diamond-coated discs for cutting. You can try both solid and segmented ones, comparing the result. When using solid discs, it is necessary to cool the saw with specialized liquids or water. Otherwise the blade can break quickly. For cutting with a minimum of chips, however, this is the best way to go.

The segmented discs used for dry cutting are more suitable for angle grinders. Cooling is achieved by means of the hollow space between the segments of the circular saw blade. However, they should not be used continuously for more than a minute or two.

Besides their construction, circular saw blades have different edge heights and thicknesses, different coatings, etc.д. As a rule, disc manufacturers themselves indicate on the discs what they are to be used for.

So the first thing to do is to mark the tiles with a construction marker or a pencil and put it on a flat surface. Use clamps to fix the tiles. If there is a workbench, mount it on the workbench. Along the cut line, fix a strip of metal to cut along it.

Cut the tile from the front side. After you cut a groove, finish cutting the tile from the back side. This way, the face surface will be least damaged. Second option. After making a few cuts, break down the slab by hand.

If necessary, you can grind the cut. When using an angle grinder, be sure to wear a safety mask or goggles, as well as gloves. If you have a lot of work to do, we recommend using a respirator as well. With an angle grinder you can shape the tile to be cut into different shapes. The angle grinder is the most accessible tool. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to note the danger of injury and the laboriousness of the work when using an angle grinder. Cuts with good geometry are rather difficult to obtain with an angle grinder. Also, the angle grinder makes a lot of noise, and leaves behind a lot of dust.

Electric tile cutter

In addition to the universal angle grinder there are also specialized tools for cutting tiles and porcelain tiles. electric tile cutters. They can be top- or bottom-mounted, with varying power and diameter of the cutting wheel. For porcelain tiles it is also recommended to use a diamond disc. The models of electric tile cutters may differ in such characteristics as the depth of cut, the size of the device itself and the working table, the availability of a cooling system, etc.

Some electric tile cutters are equipped with a water tray. The cutting disk is fed with water, as a result of which the disk is cooled, ensuring a longer service life. Thanks to this also increases the quality of cutting porcelain tile, without splinters, etc.д. It is at the expense of this that the electric tile cutter wins in comparison with the angle grinder.

Manual tile cutter

In addition to power tools, there is also a manual tile cutter. To such a tool have the following requirements:

For hand-cut porcelain tile, you should mark the tile with a construction marker and place it on the tile cutter as evenly as possible along the cut line. Draw a line with a roller over the porcelain stoneware in one motion, while pressing gently. Next, place the foot on the tile and break it along the line. If necessary, grind the cut. It is not recommended to cut too narrow strips from the tile with a handheld tile cutter, t.к. To break them off without chipping will be problematic. Also, if when cutting you hit the ribs on the back side of the slab, it is likely that the oblique lines will be broken off with splinters. Nevertheless, with this method you get a minimum of noise and dust.

Waterjet cutting

This kind of processing is used only on the production area with special equipment, respectively, and its tasks are different.

This is what a handheld cutting machine looks like. A process for craftsmen with golden hands

Cutting porcelain tiles at 45 degrees is also quite feasible with an electric tile cutter and even with an angle grinder.

This option allows you to get the desired result at any angle

But complex profiles, elements of mosaic panels, figures and individual compositions can be cut out only with special machines. As a rule, they use a method of cutting the material with a mixture of water and abrasive powder, fed into the nozzle at high pressure. The curved cut of porcelain tiles is performed with an extremely thin jet, so the accuracy of execution is very high This method is used for large artistic orders for the design of public buildings and premises, such as train stations and subway stations. It is a pleasure to watch how these machines cut porcelain stoneware.

It is easiest to work with small formats on such a machine

Of course, the price of such production is high. If you need to cut a couple of dozen tiles into a home entryway, then forget about waterjet cutting. One order will cost more than the best mechanical tile cutters. Better to read a few articles on “cut porcelain tiles” and choose a method and tool that fully meets the task at hand.

Cutting porcelain stoneware in any pattern with the water cutter

The basis of every construction project, whether it is a home repair or the decoration of a shopping center, is the planning and calculation. Based on the volume and complexity of tasks to be performed, you choose the method of processing the material and tool.

The format and size of porcelain tiles can be any size. Even three meters

How to cut porcelain tile depends only on these conditions. The choice is yours.

Cutting with an angle grinder

It is convenient to cut tiles made of porcelain tiles at home with an angle grinder or an angle grinder. First of all, it is a convenient, budget-friendly device, which any craftsman can have, but it has one drawback: it is almost impossible to get a cut without chipping, but if you choose the right cutting disc, the number of imperfections can be minimized.

The choice of blade

angle grinder makes cuts of any shape, including wavy ones. To reduce chipping, the working disc must have:

• Quality diamond coating;
• Confirmation that it is designed for cutting porcelain stoneware;
• Minimum thickness;
• Sufficient diamond coating to increase the working life of the disc;
• Continuous cutting edge.

It is better to buy discs for a certain type of tile, because universal models are not very effective.

Shaped threads

The shape cutting is performed in the case when the tiles must bypass the communications or plumbing equipment (sinks, toilets, outlets, etc.).). Here are the tools that are suitable for shape cutting.

• A drill with a ballerina or crown bit can be used to cut circular holes.
• A manual or electric jigsaw can be used for making circular cuts in small tile thicknesses.
• Electric tile cutter depending on the design.
• Pliers allow you to break off small pieces of ceramic from the edge of the tile.
• Tile cutters have a cutter and wire cutters, first make an incision, and then turn the tool over and clamp the tile along the cutting line until it splits.
• the angle grinder can be used to make a curved cut, but it must be done with some skill and safety precautions are important.